US says North Korea made millions from remote work scheme
A federal court in St. Louis has indicted 14 North Koreans for allegedly being part of a long-running conspiracy aimed at extorting money from American companies and funding Pyongyang’s weapons programs.
The widespread scheme reportedly involves thousands of North Korean IT workers using false, stolen and borrowed identities from people in the US and other countries to get hired and work remotely for US companies.
The indictment says the defendants and others who worked with them earned at least $88 million (£51.5 million) for the North Korean regime over a six-year period.
North Korea’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a BBC News request for comment.
Prosecutors say the suspects worked for two North Korean-controlled companies – China-based Yanbian SilverStar and Russia-based Volasis SilverStar.
According to the US Justice Department, they were among a group of 130 North Korean IT employees employed by two companies, where they were known internally as “IT warriors”.
The suspects were reportedly ordered to demand a salary of $10,000 per month from their American employers.
In addition to monthly salaries, they also raised money for the North Korean regime by stealing valuable company information and threatening to leak it if the employer did not pay extortion money.
The group now faces wire fraud, money laundering, identity theft and other charges.
In addition to using stolen identities to avoid detection, prosecutors said they paid people living in the US to obtain, install and host laptops provided by US employers.
They will then instruct those US residents to install remote access software, allowing them to appear to be working from the US while actually living abroad.
Investigators believe the suspects remain in North Korea, making it unlikely they will ever face justice.
Nevertheless, the US State Department has announced that it will offer a reward of up to $5 million to anyone providing more information about the suspects, as well as Yanbian and Volassis.
US officials have not named the American companies targeted in the plan.
Ashley T. Johnson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI St. Louis Field Office, said, “Although we have dismantled this group and identified its leadership, this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
“The North Korean government has trained and deployed thousands of IT workers to implement this same scheme against American companies every day.”
